Chapter Text
Hajime was finally ready to go.
He walked through the gardens, headed to Kazuichi’s garage to remove the dreadful chain around his neck.
It was peaceful outside today. Despite the red sky tainting the atmosphere, there was no smoke rising from the city, no piercing screams resonating of death and no psychotic laughter floating in the air. Painful memories of the old days flew through Hajime’s mind. He shook his head, no need to think about all that, after all, everything is much better now.
The Ultimate Despairs were almost completely cured, he couldn’t worry about it anymore.
Ah, there was Kazuichi’s garage.
As he was finally approaching it, he noticed everyone was there. They were all waiting in front and... even Nagito was there. Hajime was surprised; after all, Nagito wasn’t one to hang out with anyone but Hajime, yet here he was, casually chatting with Fuyuhiko with a smile on his face.
The others noticed he was approaching and turned around to wave at him with cheerful smiles. The brunette waved back, picking up the pace a little as to not make them wait any longer.
But something flashed in his friends’ eyes. Their face switched from happiness to complete terror and before he could react, he felt something wrap around his chest.
He gasped as he felt something metallic dig slightly into his stomach. When he looked down, he noticed huge long metal...claws? wrapped around him.
Feeling the panic slowly rise into his chest as he was lifted off the ground, he looked back. His heart almost stopped.
A giant Monokuma stared right into his eyes as it held him in its paw. The brunette shuddered and tried breaking free from the grip, but without success. He looked back frantically in front of him and noticed his friends all running towards him. He met Nagito’s eyes. They were filled with a mix of worry and panic, and his lips were pressed together in a thin line.
“Puhuhuhu... well well well, what do we have here?!”
A woman with strawberry blond pigtails came out from behind the big Monokuma bear, a wide grin on her face.
“Release him Junko!” shouted Sonia as she stopped a few meters away from the bear and Hajime, a panicked yet furious look on her face.
“Jeez, that’s no fun! You guys have definitely been cured of my brainwashing to worry about such a worthless former Reserve Course student like this guy!”
The woman cackled as the others frowned. “He’s not worthless, he may be talentless but at least he’s not complete scum like you, Junko Enoshima.”
This seemed out of character coming from Nagito and Hajime’s eyes widened at the uncharacteristic annoyed and angry tone coming from the white haired man. I don’t thing he’d ever seen Nagito get angry before.
“Is my wittle Nagito angwy?! Awww, man, I’m so sad I’m going to start crying, you’re so mean my darling!” Junko was fake crying. But she quickly switched to another personality.
“This is so fucking disgusting and filled with despair! All my hard work gone because of this little bitch! Kyahahaha! Let’s fuckin’ fix that now, shall we?!”
His friends had good reflex, Akane, Nekomaru and Peko hadn’t hesitated to jump at the Monokuma and start fighting him.
But they weren’t fast enough. The bear threw the poor Hajime up in the air and lifted its paw behind Hajime, claws aligned with the brunette’s back.
...
Hajime saw his life flash before his eyes. From his childhood, where he had a completely basic and normal life, playing with multiple friends, living happily with his parents, to his high school days, which had been simple yet eventful, until The Tragedy happened and he was thrown into a world of despair. He tried to survive, he remembered the days he would risk himself to go out to scavenge for food to keep him alive. He’d never come back home unharmed after these trips; he would either get attacked by a crazed drugged person or fall victim to a disastrous explosion. It was on one of those trips that he first met Nagito. He remembered the despair and hope swirling in his eyes as he was giving a speech to a giant crowd, which gradually killed itself from the impact of his words and the realization coming from them. It was horrifying, and Hajime was reminded of the Reserve Course massacre, which he had avoided by pure luck because he was out to visit his family in Towa the days it happened. Then, he would keep meeting back with Nagito through random encounters. The crazy man would go on a ramble about how much hope would birth from this despair and how much he awaited it. Hajime would often wonder why the man hadn’t killed him yet, why he always wanted to hang out with Hajime. One day, Hajime encountered Sonia Nevermind, who was about to kill him, but Nagito stepped in at the last minute, claiming Hajime was his... friend.
After that, they made Hajime their “Servant”. They tied a long heavy chain to his neck that was made with such strong material than whatever the boy did, he could never manage to even damage it. He was tasked with multiple chores, such as cleaning the castle and cooking. He did as he was told, never asked questions and kept to himself. It was like this until a certain pink haired man and another one completely wrapped with straps came to the castle. Upon seeing Hajime, they both quickly took an interest in him for some reason, claiming he was a “strange specimen”, because of how Sonia had decided to spare his life. Kazuichi would talk to Hajime for hours about bombs, Monokumas and other gadgets he’d build to cause despair. He would bring Hajime to his garage, show him his projects and even test them with the poor boy, who would more than often end up with bruises and scratches from the failed experiments. Gundham was no better. His pets would scratch, bite and had no mercy on the brown haired man. Gundham would also ramble about stories of how he and his pets conquered the Overworld and other his metaphorical tales of how he spread despair.
And over the next few months, the other Ultimate Despairs slowly settled in the castle. And Hajime would meet with all of them, from their demand, and he would reluctantly agree. Each meeting was the same; rambles about despairful stories, demonstration of their Ultimate Talent, which ends up hurting Hajime in one way or another, and finally, questions about Hajime. But as the months turned into years, the meetings became... more enjoyable. Hajime grew to like hanging out with them and he could feel the feeling was mutual. It eventually evolved to the point where the Ultimate Despairs didn’t even talk about despair anymore and barely even went outside to cause it. They’d just stay inside the castle or around its surroundings, tending to normal occupations, bothering Hajime here and there.
Then, they all started to get along back with each other. They hung out, laughed and chatted together without a care in the world. The road had been bumpy, their first attempts at re-socializing with each other, encouraged by Hajime, had been messy and extremely uncomfortable. But Hajime never gave up. He never gave up on making his new friends see the shining hope behind all of that despair. And eventually, that blinding hope resurfaced through the endless pits of despair.
Hajime was happy. He had made new friends and he was living a life filled with anticipation towards what the future held for him. The future wasn’t dark anymore, a clear blinding path was opening up in front of him. He saw his new friends looking back at him with bright smiles as they all marched towards that blinding light at the end of the path. One particular friend of his held their hand out for him.
Hajime grabbed Nagito’s hand as the other smiled warmly.
But he could only watch as the world disintegrated around him, breaking down on itself, decomposing and crumbling until he felt a cold sensation pierce his entire body.
He felt a tingle at the back of his throat and let out a cough, a mysterious bright pink substance staining his hands as he held them in front of him. He looked down at them and sure enough, he also noticed the four blades, no, claws, stabbed through his stomach from his back, coming out at the front, stained with the same pink blood he’d coughed out.
Suddenly, the claws retracted with a pulling motion, his body limping back, dragged by the movement. He then felt himself falling through the air, endlessly twirling into the darkness of the previous illusion of the blinding white path he had imagined.
He was brought back to reality as he felt his body and head hit, what he assumed was, the solid floor beneath him.
He heard a sickening laugh, along with some screams and cries, though he couldn’t quite make out who they belonged to.
“I would torture him like I did with little sweet Chiaki, but Reserve Course trash like him doesn’t deserve my precious time! Puahaha! How despairful, am I fucking right?? Oh well! I have a killing game to attend, see y’all later fuckers!”
This statement was somehow understood loud and clear by the bleeding brown haired man. He watched with a blurry vision as the giant Monokuma walked away, the blurry outline of blond hair standing on its shoulder.
Hajime laid there, unable to move.
Everything was painful.
Everything hurt.
Everything was blurry, everything was slowly fading around him, everything was slowly darkening, as if the shadows were slowly consuming him.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw multiple blurry shapes in his field of view. He tried desperately to focus his vision of the outlines, and after a few seconds, he could finally make out who said shapes were.
Tear filled panicked eyes filled his vision and echoing sobs resonated through his ears.
He heard Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko tell him encouraging words, their voices shaky and often interrupted by sobs. He saw Mikan fumble with multiple bandages and medical things, her eyes teary and voice trembling as she desperately tried to get Hajime to listen to her.
But the only thing Hajime could focus on was the head of white hair hovering above his face.
Nagito’s eyes were filled with tears as he held Hajime’s face, spluttering out words Hajime couldn’t hear. He felt droplets of those tears slid down the man’s pale face and onto his own face, feeling the cold yet warm sensation of them on his skin.
“Please. Please don’t leave me. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault. This is all my fault. This is all my- my- damn f-fault!”
As if life had granted him one last wish, Hajime heard Nagito’s words. He heard the countless apologies spewing out of the man’s mouth, more than often interrupted by sobs, slight hiccups and shaky breaths. Nagito’s eyes stared directly into Hajime’s. They were filled with sorrow, sadness and guilt.
Hajime smiled. Then, as if it was a miracle, he managed to lift up his hand. He brought it to the man’s pale face, his face contorted in pain from the physical labor. The other’s eyes widened in surprise as his hand finally reached his cheek. Nagito was frozen for a slight second, before he grabbed the hand with his two hands and nuzzled his face into it, sobs and tears coming out once more in an endless stream.
Hajime took a short breath as he stared deep into Nagito’s eyes, who also stared back at him, never breaking contact.
Hajime’s eyes wandered to everyone else for a second, meeting every pair of eyes there were, before going back to Nagito’s.
“Please...”
Hajime was interrupted by a sharp pain in his chest, before quickly continuing. He felt the shadows leaning in closer, clawing at the edges of his vision.
“Look forward to the future. Create your... your own future.”
He heard others start sobbing even more violently. Hajime smiled once more as his vision became blurry once again, this time, unable to make it go back to normal.
He looked straight into Nagito’s eyes, which were still widened in shock.
“Never lose hope in the... future.”
With those last words, Hajime felt his eyes flutter, suddenly feeling very tired. He heard cries, sobs, screams, but they were muffled. He felt the shadows creeping up at his vision completely take it over as he took one last deep breath.
He closed his eyes, and with the last strenght he could muster, he smiled. He could feel the strange yet welcoming darkness completely take over his surroundings as he felt the lingering warmth of Nagito’s cheek on his hand one last time.
Hajime was finally ready to go.